In 49 B.C., the year Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon River with his legions of soldiers and marched on Rome to seize power, Virgil, to escape the civil disturbances that Caesar's arrival created, left the city and moved to Naples. There, he studied with the philosopher Siro. It is uncertain whether a number of minor poems attributed to Virgil, including "Culex" ("The Gnat"), "Copa" ("The Barmaid"), and "Catalepton" ("Trifles"), were written by him, but if so, some of them may have been completed at this time.
After Caesar's assassination in 44 B.C., Virgil returned to Mantova, where, a year later, he began the composition of his first important work, a collection of ten poems known as the Eclogues, or "Selections," sometimes called the Bucolics, or "Pastoral Poems." Published in 37 B.C., the Eclogues depict the lives and loves of shepherds in idealized rural settings. However, the first and ninth Eclogues, which are more realistic than the others, allude to the politically motivated confiscation of Mantuan farms, which were awarded to war veterans after the forces of Octavian, Lepidus, and Mark Antony defeated Brutus's and Cassius's armies at the Battle of Philippi in 42 B.C. When his father's estate was confiscated in 41 B.C., Virgil appealed to Octavian for restitution, although there is considerable uncertainty and disagreement as to the result of this appeal. The confiscated property may have been regained, or, failing that, residences in Rome and Naples may have been awarded to him as compensation for the loss of his patrimony.
